Welcome
Welcome to the
latest issue of Bringing Work to Life.
We explored
the following topics in the past twelve issues (all newsletters are
available at
www.elsdon.com/newsletters.htm):
o
Career interdependence (Third Quarter 2008)
o
Demystifying workforce metrics (Second Quarter 2008)
o
Transforming a Human Resources (HR) career (First Quarter 2008)
o
Stewardship and governance (November/December 2007)
o
Finding the peaks (September/October 2007)
o
Career plateaus – what to do about them (July/August 2007)
o
Workforce planning (May/June 2007)
o
Assessing your organization (March/April 2007)
o
Individual change (January/February 2007)
o
Guiding organizational change (November/December 2006)
o
One to one (September/October 2006)
o
New horizons (July/August 2006)
In this issue
we address “Career Transformation.”
Career Transformation
“Ten years ago….
I turned my face for a moment
And it became my life.”
(Participant in a David Whyte workshop as quoted in
“Leading from Within”)
These words show how easily our lives can be shaped
by an outside world. This is particularly true for our work lives,
where, for many, serendipity, perhaps aided by parents or family
members, leads to that early career path. Inefficiencies and barriers
to movement inherent in the job market, even within an organization, can
contribute to a growing disconnect. Not surprisingly, often we come to
reexamine our path forward at various life stages, as the emotional
energy to sustain a poor fit becomes too great. A gift for many of us
in developed economies is the opportunity to re-examine and redirect our
work lives. Seeds of transformation are sown in this redirection, and
it is this career transformation that we explore here.
Sometimes this redirection is driven by changing
internal perspectives. A choice that worked well at one life stage may
no longer have the same appeal at a later stage. Just as we respond to
the beauty of a piece of music on first hearing, and enjoy it with
repetition, eventually the piece can lose its appeal; as it no longer
evokes the same emotional response. Yerkes and Dodson capture a related
aspect (cited in “The First 90 Days”), observing that our performance
peaks at an intermediate level of stimulation or stress. We need some
stimulation or stress to sustain interest. However, too much stress and
we lose effectiveness, too little and we disengage. On other occasions
external factors may dominate. For example, the arrival of an
ineffective boss, or reorganization due to challenging business
conditions or a merger/acquisition can cause a re-assessment. All of
these events or changing perspectives bring the possibility of career
transformation to the forefront.
Career transformation can take many forms, ranging
from a dramatic epiphany that drives the need to fashion an entirely new
path. This may mean moving function and or sector/organization, perhaps
accompanied by additional education. In early career stages this may
spring from exposure to new possibilities or growing self awareness. In
later career stages it may come from re-awakening dormant career
passions from an earlier life stage. Alternatively career
transformation can be a gradual progression into a new area or
organization. For example, a move to a new function in an existing
organization or a move to a new organization while staying in the same
function. The following figure illustrates one example of how these
different forms of career transformation may unfold at various career
stages.
The figure shows the rate of career change on the
vertical axis, with rapid change such as an abrupt shift or epiphany
shown at the lower end of the scale, moving to more gradual movement at
the upper end of the scale. Career stage is shown on the horizontal
axis moving from early career on the left side to mature on the right
side. The inverted U-shaped crescent in the figure shows one potential
profile of the likelihood of career change, in this case with more
rapid, abrupt change in early and late career stages. Crafting such a
profile can highlight career related issues that surface. For example,
substantial additional education and changing financial circumstances
are more likely to accompany rapid career shifts. The emotional
consequences of rapid shifts are also more intense and speak to the
potential influence on other aspects of life. Here are some
perspectives about what different rates of career change can mean:
This process builds on the core premise that we
develop in a context of career interdependence (see the third quarter
2008 issue of Bringing Work to Life), for it is through such
interdependence and community, that life expression is enhanced. Here
is T.S. Eliot from Little Gidding (quoted in “Leading from Within”):
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
It is in career transformation, whether abrupt or
gradual, that we can build deeper knowledge of ourselves and in so doing
more fully express who we are.
Seed of Hope
Kindness, it’s a funny word with warm feelings.
Turns out our word comes from the old English gecynde, which means
"natural, native, innate", originally "with the feeling of relatives for
each other”. And those feelings have been embraced by other cultures,
so it’s sort of global. And it’s also personal. I remember well
hearing the new CEO of an organization I had been with for almost 20
years, early in his reign, sending a letter to those of us in the
organization, saying that this would not be a kinder, gentler place. I
remember well knowing that this would not be a place for me, and
choosing to leave soon thereafter. It was no surprise to see the
organization disappear into the maw of another several years later. And
so it was good to hear just one tiny word in those first musings of
Barack Obama on his prospective nomination. In daring to use the word
kind, he just planted a seed of hope.
Such hope is sorely needed when we look at the
enormous increase in income inequality in the U.S. as shown in the
following figure, where the upper line shows the disproportionate income
growth for those earning in the top 0.1% of our population.
Source: Economic Policy Institute, June 8, 2008
Snapshot
The income share of the highest 1% income
households has now returned to the level of 1928, just before the great
depression, as shown in the following figure:
Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities,
July 23, 2008
Disappointing employment trends since 2000, during
the most recent business cycle, bring this into strong focus,
contrasting sharply with the encouraging trends during the business
cycle in the 1990s, as shown in the next figure.
![[figure]](fourth_quarter_2008_files/image012.jpg)
Source: Economic Policy Institute Snapshot,
8/6/2008
These dismal trends since 2000 are also reflected
in declining median income for middle income, working-age households
(those headed by someone less than 65). The median income, adjusting
for inflation, fell $2,000 between 2000 and 2007, from about $58,500 to
$56,500 (2007 dollars) as shown in the following figure. This contrasts
with a real gain of about $5,200 over the 1990s (1989-2000).
Source: Economic Policy Institute Snapshot,
8/27/2008
Not surprisingly, policies that have favored
distribution of income to the wealthy since 2000 (a reverse Robin Hood
principle) have led to an increase in the percentage of people in
poverty as shown in the following figure:
Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities,
August 26, 2008
They have also led to an increase in child poverty,
a scandal in our wealthy society:
Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities,
August 26, 2008
And they have led to many more people without
health insurance:
Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities,
August 26, 2008
Declining prosperity has also led many to remain in
the workforce longer, as shown in the following figure: The upper line
shows a rapid decline since 2000 in the percentage of 60-64 year-olds
who have left the labor force.
Source: Economic Policy Institute, June 25, 2008
Snapshot
These words from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural
address reverberate today: “If a free society cannot help the many who
are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich… Now the trumpet summons
us again … a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year
in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’ – a
struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease
and war itself.” How desperately we need to restore these ideals of
kindness to our society.
Quote
“I think back to my days of working in Dorothy
Day’s Catholic Worker soup kitchen. One afternoon after several of us
had struggled with a ‘wino,’ a ‘Bowery bum’ an angry, cursing truculent
man of fifty or so, with long gray hair, a full, scraggly beard, a huge
scar on his right cheek, a mouth with virtually no teeth, and bloodshot
eyes, one of which had a terrible tic, she told us, ‘For all we know he
might be God himself come here to test us, so let us treat him as an
honored guest and look at his face as if it is the most beautiful one we
can imagine.’”
From The Spiritual Life of Children by Robert
Coles, excerpt in chapter on Dr. Robert Coles in Soul Survivor by Philip
Yancey.
Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR) Recent Mentions
·
Reviews of
“Affiliation in the Workplace: Value Creation in the New
Organization.” Ron Elsdon. Praeger, Westport, CT (2003)
o
Harvard
Business School
·
HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations
o
Global Diversity Institute
·
Global Diversity Institute - The Journal of Diversity Praxis
o
Journal of Asian Economics
·
ScienceDirect - Journal of Asian Economics : Ron Elsdon, Affiliation in
the Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization, Praeger
Publishers, Westport, CT (2003) 280 pp. (hardcover), ISBN 1-56720-436-8,
$49.95.
o
Greenwood Publishing Group
·
Affiliation in the Workplace — www.greenwood.com
·
Chapter titled
“How Can You Grow Your Practice with Purpose?” in National Career
Development Association Monograph, “Starting and Growing a Business in
the New Economy” Edited by Sally Gelardin, 2007
·
Webcast for
Human Capital Institute (and associated white paper)
o
Building Workforce Affiliation to Keep Your Best and Brightest Talent
·
http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/research_community_product.guid;jsessionid=8C417EAC34880D6A38E82D4FBE2598C4?_webcastID=74366
·
Recorded
Webinar for Project Management Institute
o
“Becoming Career Fit in Turbulent Times”
·
http://pmi-issig.org/Default.aspx?tabid=319
·
“Building a
Strong Workforce Through Affiliation.” Chapter 26 in “On Staffing:
Advice and Perspectives from HR Leaders.” Eds. Nicholas Burkholder et
al, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken NJ (2004)
o
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471410691,descCd-tableOfContents.html
·
“The Growing
Divide Calls for Advocacy.”
o
Article in March, 2007, NCDA Career Convergence magazine
·
http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=947&Sections=&IncludeDropped=1&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
“Reaching for
Our Deep Gladness”
o
Article in May, 2005, NCDA Career Convergence magazine
·
http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=625&Sections=6&IncludeDropped=&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
Mention in
article on cost of turnover
o
East
Bay Business Times, April 2005
·
Turnover costs exceed employers' estimates - 2005-04-25
·
“Worklife
Survival: Finding a Fit”
o
Article for HR West, February 2005 (Northern California Human Resource
Association)
·
http://www.nchra.org/StaticContent/Download/EXT0205007.pdf
·
Interview in
the education field “Affiliation as a Unifying Principle in Education”
o
Career Pro News
·
Affiliation and Education
·
MBTI Step II
workshop
o
CCDA News, April 2005
·
Local Chapter News
·
Review of ICDC
Global Issues Forum
o
CCDA, January 2005
·
ICDC Global Issues Forum
About EOR: Our Value Contribution
We enhance
your workforce, leadership and organization by:
·
Using
proprietary approaches to understand workforce and leadership challenges
·
Creating
tailored action plans and solutions to strengthen workforce and
leadership practices
·
Building
individual capabilities and contributions
We enable you
to focus on external results and building value, confident that your
organization and leadership are operating at peak effectiveness.
Our Mission
To support
your organization by enhancing performance, productivity and
effectiveness through revitalized workforce relationships and leadership
practices.
Our Approach and Values
We tailor our engagements to the needs of each organization with a
process designed to surface critical issues, identify root causes, build
effective solutions, monitor progress and implement.
With a scope that ranges from system and organizational interventions to
work with individuals, our focus is on the heart of the relationship
among the individual, the organization and the community. We believe
that organizational and community prosperity are built on enabling each
person to fulfill his or her potential.
Our Services
We work with
individuals and groups in your organization to drive performance and
development for both the short and long term. As a result people will
choose to work in your organization and will prosper there.
We bring
solutions when you need to:
·
Reverse
declining revenues and performance
·
Revitalize
your workforce
·
Stem the loss
of key talent
·
Redirect your
organization to new areas
·
Stop losing
customers or market share
·
Penetrate new
markets
·
Combat
aggressive competitors
·
Handle major
change
·
Break down
communication barriers
·
Energize your
leadership team
·
Successfully
build on an acquisition or merger
Our
proprietary services include:
·
On-site career
services that support the development of your workforce, build strength
in depth, increase individual fulfillment and affiliation, and
accelerate productivity growth
o
On site career counseling
o
Individual and group delivery
o
Metrics to guide on-going system enhancement
o
Integrated with the needs of your organization
·
State-of-the-art tools to take the pulse of your organization and then
move to action
o
Web enabled systems
o
Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to
action
·
Individual
leadership coaching to give you world class leadership capabilities
o
Leaders who know themselves and their aspirations, build their
capabilities and become catalysts developing others
·
Workshops to
build interpersonal skills in your organization so that:
o
Communication is timely, concise, accurate and personal
o
People listen to each other
o
Negotiations are quick and effective
o
Differences create rather than destroy value
o
Teams move forward, get results and quickly commercialize new products
and services
o
People understand and link their motivations to your organizational
needs
o
Your teams understand what it takes to create a committed, energized
workforce
o
People use their time well
·
Systems that
make it easy to drive performance and build capabilities by:
o
Linking objectives throughout the organization
o
Strengthening key competencies
o
Making sure you have the bench strength where and when you need it
o
Giving people tools to take charge of their own careers and development
and have a major long term influence on your organization
·
Proprietary
simulation and modeling techniques that let you explore how to maximize
the value of your workforce
o
Move from guessing what might happen to looking in depth at the
financial impact of different approaches
